As it is with many passages, stories, and books found in the Bible…there is no shortage of voices out there offering up their ‘take’ on them; and I’m fully aware that I am one of those ‘many voices’. So I know what I am up against when I post these daily messages. But I will continue to lay out for any and all who care to read for themselves what I firmly believe the Holy Spirit continues to compel me to share. I easily identify with what the early disciples who said “we cannot help but to speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). I simply share these things with you here, hope and pray that you will study for yourselves to see if the Spirit bears witness (Acts 17:11)…and then trust God to do His part.

The Book of Job is one of those stories found in the Old Testament that many people turn to when they hit those ‘hard patches’ in life, that many. folks can all relate to. Job hit a really tough patch losing everything dear to him, including his own health. Like most books in the Bible, we could easily do a ‘deep dive’ and spend months, if not years... combing through those pages and gleaning so many things from Job’s story; which I will not be doing here today, or any time soon, I’m guessing. But I would like to revisit the first two chapters as sort of a ‘review’ and be reminded of some valuable lessons that are there for us to learn.

Right out of the gate, we are told that Job was a man who was “blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil” (1). God even said this about him, that “there is one like him on the earth…a blameless and upright man…”{8}. I am inclined to believe that it is quite possible that Job was another character we read about in the Bible who was a ‘type of Christ’, and would come much later in time.

I only say that because not only do we learn what a noble and near ‘perfect’ man he was in God’s eyes…but he ends up suffering greatly, for no fault of his own. God even makes this clear in (2:3). And if we are careful to examine the scriptures, we will see that we are the ones who benefit from his suffering…IF…we pay attention to what the scriptures are trying to teach us. We already know how we benefit from the undeserved suffering that Jesus endured for our sake, do we not?

As Job’s story begins, we are given access to ringside seats to listen in on a conversation that takes place between God…and Satan (6-7). God asked him where he had been (not that God didn’t know already) and Satan replies ‘going to and fro on the earth, walking back and forth on it’. You might want to jot down 1 Peter 5:8 there, because Peter uses similar language to describe what ‘the devil’ is known to do as he ‘goes about like a roaring lion seeking to devour’.

Then, God asks a rather interesting question, wanting to know if Satan had ‘considered Job’ {8}. Considered him for what?...might be a reasonable question to ask; but we can only assume that God might be toying with the devil here, knowing that if he was out looking to ‘devour’…why had he not made an attempt on Job. And Satan responds immediately with the answer, basically admitting: “I can’t touch him because you have a ‘hedge’ around him, his household, and all that he has.”(9). In case you just dropped in today, we’ve been talking the past few days about ‘hedges’, the purpose they serve around vineyards, and what happens when God ‘removes’ the hedge, based on Isaiah 5.

I heard a preacher say the other day that ‘praying a protective hedge’ around someone was not really ‘scriptural’…because Job is the only one we are told who had a ‘hedge of protection’; but I would take exception to that. I would encourage you to jot down and look up Psalm 91:1-13; 34:7; Luke 10:19; John 10:27-28; & 1 John 5:18. It would seem to me based on those passages alone, that God very much does ‘protect’ or ‘sets a hedge’ around those who truly are ‘abiding’ in Him. And when you study the terms of covenants which have been around since the beginning of time, one of the perks, or blessings that came with entering into a covenant was your enemies became enemies to the one you entered into covenant with, which was great news, because you now had a formidable companion who would come to your defense if/when your enemies rose up against you. And who…are Christians in ‘covenant’ with today? God’s not a bad ‘wingman’ to have, especially when your ‘enemy, the devil’ is on the prowl.  And friends, he is very much in existence and should not be ignored (1 John 5:19; Acts 26:18; Eph. 4:27).

But for the sake of our lesson today to glean truth from, we learn that Satan challenges God to ‘remove that hedge’ so he can have his way with Job, thinking that he will ‘curse God to His face’ after he’s done with him (10). And guess what? God agrees to do this very thing, as in ‘removing the hedge’… but he sets boundaries there, meaning that Satan can do nothing…without God’s permission or approval. That restriction God placed is found in vs. 12- “You can take anything he has, but you are not to touch his body.” And then Satan leaves the presence of God.

Now what transpires next is noteworthy as well. We are not told of any regional or global conflicts taking place in that day, or of any unsettled ‘weather patterns’ moving in, maybe as a result of ‘climate change’, nor if any local security forces or armies were on strike, or understaffed. What we are told though, in vs.13-19…is that ‘all hell broke loose’, and all of Job’s world came crashing down in destruction. Now let me ask you: Who…was behind all the ensuing chaos and destruction that you read there? And who…gave this ‘entity of darkness’ permission to trigger all this? (Did you read those verses?)

Can we resist the understandable urge we have to want to ask ‘why’…and let’s just stay focused on the ‘what and who’ for the time being, please?

For all the ‘theology’ out there that likes to take on the subject of God’s ‘sovereignty’, can we just agree up front…that Almighty God is Lord of all that is in the heavens and on the earth, and everywhere else in-between? And if we learn nothing else from this exchange in Job 1, it is the fact that Satan, the devil, nor any of his fallen angels can do a single thing without God’s approval. Satan is not some lone renegade operating under his own authority to do as he pleases as if he was some ongoing thorn of nuisance in God’s side. If you are struggling to come to terms with this one bedrock truth, then I would advise taking some time to pray about it and wait on God to confirm this to you, maybe through more study of His word…before continuing on here. I’ll be back tomorrow, Lord willing.